Practical Cooking Cheat Sheet

If you like to dabble in cooking or really serious in becoming a great chef, there are some useful shortcuts that could help you in your culinary pursuits. The first handy tool a chef needs is a guide to metric conversions of oven temperatures, weights, and volume.

Understanding Metric Conversion

The metric system uses Centigrade as its unit of temperature, which is also commonly known as the Celsius scale. This is a very logical water based system with 0 degrees as the freezing point and 100 degrees as the boiling point. With the Imperial system, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit while freezing point is at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

A formula for conversion that you can use is C x 1.8 + 32 = Fahrenheit while F – 32 / 1.8 = Celsius. By familiarizing yourself with these two formulas, you can overcome your fear of the metric system.

For weights:

The metric system is an international system of weights that use the gram as a unit of measure while the Imperial system uses ounces. It is easy to convert from ounces to grams and pound to kilogram using these formulas:
1 ounce = 28.35 grams
1 gram = 0.035 ounces
1 kilogram = 35 ounces/2.2 pounds

The metric system uses the liter as the unit of measurement for liquids. It is handy to remember that a liter is 1.76 pints and a pint is 16 fl. oz. Keeping this in mind, below is a useful table for liquid measurements:

With this information, it won’t be difficult to convert from metric to customary U.S. units of measure so you can easily follow recipes. There are also special calculators that can be purchased if you need to make conversions regularly.